TECHNICAL PROBLEMS POSED BY THE PRIOR ART
Conventional railway tank cars are typically provided with an outlet valve at the bottom of the tank for discharging the liquid contents from the tank. Such a bottom outlet valve is typically of the ball valve type and is usually provided with an appropriate outlet adaptor (nozzle) for connection to a pipe, hose, or other conduit for discharging the railway tank car fluid product to a receiving container.
One type of outlet adaptor in use today with bottom outlet valves is a threaded nozzle which is normally capped with a matingly engaged threaded cap. When it is desired to discharge the product from the railway tank car, the cap is unthreaded from the nozzle, and a hose is threaded onto the end of the nozzle in place of the cap.
When the fluid product is to be discharged through a bottom outlet valve operated by means of a conventional handle connected to the valve, the person operating the handle to open the valve must be positioned relatively close to the valve, and hence, relatively close to the connection of the hose to the nozzle on the outlet of the valve. Typically, the person must crouch down or sit beneath part of the railway tank car between the tracks to reach the valve operating handle This is awkward and strenuous. In view of this it would be desirable to provide a bottom outlet valve assembly that would not require the person to crouch or sit beneath the tank car.
One approach to avoid having the operating person crouch beneath the tank car has been to provide valve operating mechanisms extending upwardly from the valve through the tank to the top of the tank car. The person operating the valve would then do so from the top of the tank car. However, the person operating the valve on the top of the tank car is unable to observe the connection of the hose to the outlet valve nozzle and is thus unable to notice any problems at the connection. Of course, this also requires the valve operator to climb up to the top of the tank car, and this in itself is still inefficient.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved outlet valve assembly with remote operating means so that the person need not crouch beneath the tank car, but can still be adjacent the tank car.
It would also be advantageous if the outlet valve assembly could be operated in a manner that would permit the person operating the valve to still view the hose connection while opening and closing the valve.